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This week, Nissan Motor and Kotohira Town announced a new agreement to utilize electric vehicles, including the Nissan LEAF, as “driving storage batteries” to power evacuation centers in the event a natural disaster strikes Japan.

Japan’s vulnerability to natural disasters

It’s no secret that Japan is particularly vulnerable to natural disasters. The island nation lying off the east coast of Asia sticks is prone to earthquakes, typhoons, and other hazards as it sits along the Ring of Fire.

The Ring of Fire is an area along the Pacific Ocean where several tectonic plates meet, creating a string of underground volcanoes and earthquake epicenters.

Japan has responded to these threats with a disaster prevention budget that includes earthquake-quake-proof buildings, alert systems, evacuation centers, and more.

Extreme weather events like torrential rain from typhoons or earthquakes often damage homes and businesses, leading to mass evacuations. For example, record-breaking rainstorms (15 inches of rain in six hours) in 2020 damaged over 4,000 properties in southern and central Japan as 3.6 million people were asked to evacuate.

Last year, over eight million residents were ordered to take shelter in evacuation centers after Typhoon Nanmadol tore across the island, causing a level 5 alert – the highest on Japan’s disaster scale.

Nissan is partnering with Kotohira Town to ensure these facilities in Japan have power after a natural disaster strikes by providing its LEAF EV to supply electricity.

After a disaster, Nissan LEAF EVs will supply power in Japan

The new partnership is designed to raise environmental awareness and disaster prevention in a sustainable way.

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According to the partnership agreement, when the power goes out in Kotohira Town, Japan, caused by a disaster, Nissan sales companies will lend their LEAF EV models free of charge to evacuation centers and other vital facilities in the best interest of the townspeople.

The EVs will also be used to supply electricity at events in town to spread the use of zero-emission electric cars even when a disaster has not happened. In addition to the partnership, Kotohira Town is actively pursuing sustainable development goals (SDGs) to build a resilient city for the future.

The town introduced a Nissan Sakura EV as a public vehicle and portable power device that it plans to introduce vehicle-to-home capabilities (V2H) to strengthen power resistance further.

Electrek’s Take

Nissan and Kotojira Town are stepping up to help protect the residents from climate hazards while promoting the best technology to help mitigate risks climate change can bring in the future.

As Nissan correctly stated, EVs are “driving storage batteries,” and it’s time to use them to their full potential.

With Japan’s low participation in fully electric vehicles thus far, hopefully, the new partnership can set an example of how the benefits of electric cars go beyond zero emissions.

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The first giant 15 MW turbine is up at Germany’s largest offshore wind farm

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The first giant 15 MW turbine is up at Germany’s largest offshore wind farm

Germany’s largest offshore wind farm under construction, EnBW’s He Dreiht, just hit a big milestone: The first enormous turbine is now up in the North Sea.

He Dreiht – which means “it spins” in Low German – is using Vestas’s massive 15 megawatt (MW) turbines, the first project in the world to install them. Just one spin of one of the rotors can generate enough electricity to power four households for an entire day.

When it’s finished, He Dreiht will have 64 mega turbines cranking out 960 megawatts (MW) of clean power – enough to supply around 1.1 million homes. And it’s being built without any government subsidies.

EnBW, one of Germany’s major energy companies, has been working in offshore wind for more than 15 years, but He Dreiht is their biggest project yet. “It will play a key role in helping us to significantly grow our renewable energy output from 6.6 GW to over 10 GW by 2030,” said Michael Class, who heads up EnBW’s generation portfolio development.

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The project is a win for Vestas, too. “With the installation of the first V236-15.0 MW, we have reached an important milestone for both the He Dreiht project and our offshore ramp-up, which helps Germany build a more secure, affordable, and sustainable energy system,” said Nils de Baar, president of Vestas Northern & Central Europe.

He Dreiht is located about 85 kilometers (53 miles) northwest of Borkum and 110 kilometers (68 miles) west of Helgoland. At peak times, more than 500 workers will be out at sea building the farm, using a fleet of more than 60 ships. EnBW’s offshore team in Hamburg is running the show.

The installation process is a major operation. The 64 foundations were already set in the seabed last year. Parts for the turbines are loaded onto the installation vessel Wind Orca in Esbjerg, Denmark, and shipped out in a 12-hour journey to the construction site. From there, the turbines are lifted into place. Meanwhile, crews are also working on internal wind farm cabling.

A partner consortium made up of Allianz Capital Partners, AIP, and Norges Bank Investment Management owns 49.9% of the shares in He Dreiht.

Read more: Trump admin halts $5 billion NY offshore wind project mid-build


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Tesla gives update on Tesla Semi factory, says on track for volume production in 2026

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Tesla gives update on Tesla Semi factory, says on track for volume production in 2026

Tesla has released a quick update about its Tesla Semi factory in Nevada. It says that it is on track for volume production of the electric semi truck in 2026.

The Tesla Semi was first scheduled to go into production in 2019, but it has faced numerous delays.

Now, it appears that there is finally some momentum to bring it to volume production.

For the last two years, Tesla has been working to build a new factory next to Gigafactory Nevada, where it builds the battery packs and drive units for most of its electric vehicles built in North America.

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Today, Tesla released a “progress update on the factory, confirming that it finished building and it’s now working on deploying the production lines:

Tesla had previously mentioned aiming for volume production by 2025, but it is now only talking about starting production toward the end of the year and ramping up next year.

The automaker reiterated its planned production capacity of 50,000 units.

We recently reported that an early Tesla Semi customer, Ryder, stated that the electric truck program is experiencing more delays and a price increase described as “dramatic.”

They now expect to take deliveries of their first trucks later in 2026 and said that the price has increased “dramatically,” leading them to scale back their pilot program from 42 to 18 Tesla Semi trucks.

When originally unveiling the Tesla Semi in 2017, the automaker mentioned prices of $150,000 for a 300-mile range truck and $180,000 for the 500-mile version. Tesla also took orders for a “Founder’s Series Semi” at $200,000.

However, Tesla didn’t update the prices when launching the “production version” of the truck in late 2022. Price increases have been speculated, but the company has never confirmed them.

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Vietnamese solar giant Boviet opens first US factory in North Carolina

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Vietnamese solar giant Boviet opens first US factory in North Carolina

Vietnamese solar panel maker Boviet Solar just opened the doors to its first US factory — a huge new PV module plant in Greenville, North Carolina.

The company dropped $294 million into the state-of-the-art facility, which will pump out Boviet’s Gamma Series monofacial and Vega Series bifacial solar panels. They’re using advanced PERC and N-Type solar cell tech, which basically means these panels are built to deliver higher efficiency and better performance across residential, commercial, industrial, and utility-scale projects.

The Greenville factory’s first phase is now online with an annual PV module output capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW). For Phase 2, which is scheduled to come online in the second half of 2026, Boviet will invest another $100 million to add 600,000 square feet and ramp up to another 2 GW. It will make high-efficiency solar cells.

Once both phases are complete, Boviet’s campus will cover more than 1 million square feet of manufacturing and R&D space. It’s one of the biggest clean energy manufacturing projects North Carolina has ever seen.

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The jobs impact is significant, too. The first phase will create 460 skilled local jobs. Phase 2 is expected to add another 908, bringing the total to over 1,300 direct jobs, plus nearly 2,000 more indirect jobs across the region. That’s good news for Pitt County’s economy, real estate market, and workforce training programs.

“This facility is not just creating jobs, but creating opportunity, innovation, and a stronger foundation for eastern North Carolina,” said Senator Kandie Smith. Governor Josh Stein added that Boviet Solar’s move shows how North Carolina is leading the way in clean energy growth.

Read more: Thomas Built Buses debuts its next-gen electric school bus


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Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisers to help you every step of the way. Get started here. –ad*

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